The other reason we don't need to be freaking out, says Romesberg, is that these molecules have not been designed to work at all in complex organisms, and seeing as they're like nothing found in nature, there's little chance that this could get wildly out of hand.

What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

This is huge. As a writer and worldbuilder, I find this a fascinating prospect for more accurate (or, at least, more verisimilar) state-of-the-art fantastical things. As a nerd, I find it deeply exciting: to be able to expand our most basic biological structure... Wow!

Sure, it "doesn't work" now because the pair is useless. The important thing, it seems, is that the framework has been established for making something that does work in the future.